Need Additional Tips For Frosting Square Cake
Decorating By KPCakes Updated 9 Apr 2009 , 12:27am by KPCakes
Okay has anyone been there where they just need to put the cake away for awhile? Okay I put it away but still obsessing about it. I have watched the 2 videos I know of on frosting a square cake. I follow what they are saying and doing because it is how I was taught. I have been decorating for several years, and I should be able to figure out how to get a sharp corner, right? It drives me absolutely crazy! I always seem to have one droopy corner on the top, go to fix that then I see another. What would make the corners droop? do you have any tips you can share? -
Sincerely,
Droopy & Round in Michigan (Go Spartans!)
Dear Droopy: 
Do you use baking strips on your pans? If your corners are lower than the center, it sounds like the outer edge of the cake baked faster than the interior. Baking strips will help eliminate that. If you're baking at the suggested 350 degrees, reduce the temp. In my home oven, I bake at 325 and in my shop convection, I bake at 275.
I had a square wedding cake with a couple of low corners. I built the corner up by piling icing on top and leveling it off ... I didn't ice to the shape of the cake, but worked to make the icing level. (hate that when that happens 
)
Thanks for the tips. I do cook at a lower temp, best advise I was ever given. I even leveled the cake and made sure everything was "square" before I started. This was my "bright" idea since I was determined to make this square. I try not put a lot of frosting on my cakes. Do I need to start with a lot of frosting and scrape back? I notice I could see how thick the sides were getting because I could see the outline of the top and they seemed to be lower than the top so I tried to build up the side and then got droopy corners again. ugggghhhh..... and I love to decorate why? LOL 
I know its easier to add alot of icing and scrape off then too little icing and add to it. At least for me anyhow.
I will try that next time. As much trouble I was having I should have scraped everything off and started with a fresh crumb coat. One of my friends said we need to invent and corner maker. I told her to get to work on that! Lucky for me all my cakes are round this weekend! Yeah! But keep the tips going!
This is what I did for my last square cake and I think it worked pretty well...first I crumbcoated the cake normally (I use IMBC), then I applied a regular coat to the top, then added a square piece of parchment and another dab of bcream to adhere, then placed another foamcore board on top and flipped the whole cake over so the top was the bottom and pressed down to level, then I refrigerated it until firm and the board was "attached" by the bcream. Then I applied more buttercream to the sides using my spackle knife and using the top and bottom boards as guides for the buttercream. The two boards made it so easy to get the corners sharp. When all was done I removed the top board and slightly smoothed the top.
Worked for me...I got really sharp corners, HTH
Toptier..looked at your cakes and your corners are SHARP! I'm having a hard time picturing your technique though. Why the parchment? And what do u mean u remove the top board and smooth. If it used to be the bottom, wouldnt it not have any buttercream on it?
Whatever you're doing its workin!
I read on here somewhere that before you put on the second layer, squirt some extra frosting on the corners, this will give the corners of the second layer a kind of lift, know what I mean?
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Picture that you're looking down at your bottom layer, add extra frosting where the x's are. This also helps when I'm doing a square cake, I pipe a kind of collar around the top edge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6r8MYHYz00&feature=channel_page
Toptier..looked at your cakes and your corners are SHARP! I'm having a hard time picturing your technique though. Why the parchment? And what do u mean u remove the top board and smooth. If it used to be the bottom, wouldnt it not have any buttercream on it?
Whatever you're doing its workin!
Your edges are fantastic. I'm assuming your doing something like the upside down method in the articles section for the top? The part I'm trying to understand is using the 2 boards to put the bc on the sides (maybe I need to refresh my tea ).
For those who asked...
the parchment piece keeps the bc from sticking to the top board (keep in mind that I use IMBC). And, yes this is the upsidedown method which works really, really well for square cakes because your corners get built up to the top and bottom surface. I forgot to mention that I flip the cake back over again at the end so the "bottom" becomes the top. The square boards at the bottom and top give you the perfect guide to use when applying bc to your sides with really crisp edges. Next time I do a square I'll try to take some pics and post them.
HTH
So, are you frosting the top of the cake, then putting parchment and a board and flipping?
Sorry If I sound clueless!
Kind of like this:
http://www.cakecentral.com/article6-Upside-Down-Icing-Technique-for-Perfectly-Smooth-Icing.html
HTH!
I do my square cakes like Seriouscakes does ... as I pipe the dam for the filling I put a small dallop of bc in each one of the corners on each torte, about the size of a blueberry or a little larger. I find it really helps the sagging corners so there's not so much to build up.
(I use a tip 12 and regular buttercream, I'm not sure this would work if you use super thick icing like sugarshack does)
Thanks, xstitcher, that is pretty close to how I do it. I actually frost the top of the cake (not a parchment circle) then put the parchment on and foamcore board, then flip the cake over so the top is on the bottom. The weight of the cake pushes the bc down so the bc is flat, flat, flat. In the meantime I have applied another board to the bottom with a small amt of bc (this is actually on top now). Once it is chilled I flip the whole thing back over so the bottom is on the bottom. Then, I frost the sides with the two boards still attached to top and bottom. The boards are the guides for your spatula or spackle knife to run along and make the edges. Try it, it's a little bit of work to cut the boards so it depends how badly you want those sharp corners!
Oh and I do overfill the corners like marccrand an serious cakes suggest as well.
Sorry, I can't explain it any better without the pictures now I have to go make a square cake...
Ohhhh....I get it. Wow.....sounds like it's foolproof! So, the boards pop right off when you are done, eh? Forgive me if you already addressed this, but you chill well once you frost the sides too...and the boards just come apart? And you have a pretty smooth surface left? And I use SMBC.
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